Buff Bagwell: “The Three-hour Nitros started The End Of WCW”

When WCW Monday Nitro was winning the WWE Monday Night War, Ted Turner’s company decided to create another weekly show called Thunder, which aired Thursday. With this, WCW added eight hours of fighting a week, adding two hours of Thunder to three of Nitro and two of Saturday Night and Worldwide.

Was this saturation that led to the fall of WCW? Buff Bagwell believes so, and said so in an interview with Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc :

“We were doing three-hour Nitros. I can not see fighting for three hours. No one can see fighting for three hours. Then they released WCW Thunder on Thursdays, and it was too much for the fans. Too.

“We had Monday Nitro, we made millions, everyone was happy, and suddenly Eric Bischoff comes up with the Thunder idea. We would say, ‘Eric, do not do it, it’s a lot of TV, too much.’ He said it would be an alternate program, so we would not work on it, but would do another group, similar to what they do now with Raw and SmackDown. It would be show A and show B.

“That was his plan, but he threw Thunder and was unsuccessful in the ratings, and suddenly started programming Bill Goldberg, Scott Steiner and all the stars, so it actually did put us to work more.

“But the problem was not working, it was too much TV, and that’s just the truth. I think we dilute the concept. “

In the last episode of Nitro, on March 26, 2001, Bagwell did not appear. Raj Giri asked him if he was present at the scene:

“Believe it or not, I was there, but I never saw the program. I just recorded an interview with Luger and left. It is not good when it is the last night and you do not go out with the public. I just wanted to go home and realize that my career was over.

“While driving home, he talked to me and my dad and asked me if I would be on TV and I said no. He replied that they had just mentioned five names (who would go to WWE) and that I was one of them. What? I said. He replied: ‘I do not say it because I am your father, but your name was the second or third most abused.’

Bagwell made his WWE debut on July 1, 2001, but was fired on day 9, and it has never been clear why:

“How to explain? I still do not know, I do not know what happened. They said it was for drugs or other things, but one day they just said, ‘Hey, Mark, you’re out.’ Thus, without prior warning. I still do not know what happened. They told me they were going to make a story and bring me back in three months, but of course, it was not true. I shook hands, thanked them, and left. “